The
Dîvân-i Kebîr ("Great Divan") by Jalaluddin Mohammad
Rumi (1207-1273)
is
considered one of the greatest works
of Persian literature ever written. This masterpiece,
an anthology of lyric poems comprised of more than 40,000 verses, comes
down to
us in a presentation manuscript preserved in the Mevlâna Museum
in Konya Turkey. The museum is the
mausoleum of Mevlana Rumi and is also the
dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the
whirling dervishes. The manuscript
compiled in 1364 consists of two volumes (Mss. 68-69) written in
Khorasani Farsi; it also has
some Arabic, Turkish, and Greek texts. In
the second volume, on page 289, Abu Bekir al
Mavlavi (the man who constructed the cover) indicates that the scribe
of the Dîvân was Hasan ibn-I Osman who started
writing on July 2, 1367 and finished in October of 1368. He worked from
the original notes taken down by the "Secretaries of the Scribe", a
circle of students and friends who wrote down the poems as they came
out of Rumi’s mouth.

One of the central figures of Islamic culture, Rumi only recently began
to emerge as a poet of significance to Westerners. According to Zahra
Partovi "...the most remarkable biographical information about
Jalaluddin Rumi's life is not the appearance and disappearance of the
mystic Shams, but Rumi's imperative and conscious decision to make a
change in his career from a Sufi teacher to a poet. Here the medium is
truly the message: the most successful Sufi teacher of all times with
countless devoted followers chooses to communicate through the path of
poetry. This masterful poet combines philosophy, mysticism, and
psychology in a language so piercing as to enter the realm of music. It
is this element more than any other which has made Rumi's poetry so
irresistible to readers for over seven hundred years, even through the
filter of translation".

Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn
Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: مولانا جلال الدین محمد رومی), also known as
Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balḫī (Persian: محمد بلخى), but known to
the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (September 30, 1207–December
17, 1273), was a 13th century Persian (Tājik) poet, Islamic jurist, and
theologian. Rumi is a descriptive name meaning "the Roman" since he
lived for the most part of his life in Anatolia which had been part of
the
Byzantine Empire two centuries before. Rumi was born in Balkh (in
present-day Afghanistan), then a city of Greater Khorasan, and died in
Konya (in present-day Turkey), then a city of the Great Seljuq Empire.
His birthplace and native language/local dialect indicates a Persian
heritage. His poetry is in Persian and his works are widely read in
Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and in translation especially
in Turkey, Azerbaijan, the US, and South Asia. He lived most of his
life in, and produced his works under the Seljuq Empire. After
Rumi's death, his followers founded the Mowlawīyah, better known as the
"Whirling Dervishes," who believe in performing their worship in the
form of dance and music ceremony called the samāʿ (from Fotopages Fariborz and
Friends).

According to
Shahram Shiva, one reason for Rumi's popularity is that
"Rumi is able to verbalize the highly personal and often confusing
world of personal/spiritual growth and mysticism in a very forward and
direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone.
The world of Rumi is neither exclusively the world of a Sufi, nor the
world of a Hindu, nor a Jew, nor a Christian; it is the highest state
of a human being — a fully evolved human. A complete human is not bound
by cultural limitations; he touches every one of us. Today Rumi's poems
can be heard in churches, synagogues, Zen monasteries, as well as in
the downtown New York art/performance/music scene." According to
Professor Majid M. Naini, Rumi's life and transformation provide
true testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds
can live together in peace and harmony. Rumi’s visions, words, and life
teach us how to reach inner peace and happiness so we can finally stop
the continual stream of hostility and hatred and achieve true global
peace and harmony.